Rooting readers share some unusual tidbits
By DONNA MURRAY ALLEN
Published July 29, 2004
Readers of this column routinely juice up my prose with suggestions for column topics, success stories and questions. Today I'll share a couple of e-mails I recently received because they focus on unusual topics that I have not yet tackled.
"I am elated that I have found my maternal great-grandparents in a cemetery in Brunswick, Ga.," writes Janice Dietrich of Brooksville. "It's not the city where I expected them to be buried. The Brunswick public library has a book of grave sites in Palmetto Cemetery and lists just the names and a site number.
"What surprised me is that both are buried in the same site along with another person, whose name I have but whose relationship I am unable to identify. A genealogy friend told me that was not an uncommon practice around 1920, when I know my great-grandmother was buried. My great-grandparents did not die in the same year."
Dietrich recommended the Find a Grave Web site at www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi as an online resource.
There are many cemetery records online. You just have to know where to look. Go to the www.rootsweb.com Web site and look under archives. Click on the state and county that interest you. The Washington County, Md., site managed by Cyndie Enfinger, for example, has several cemetery sites with at least a partial listing of names. Another site with some searchable databases is www.daddezio.com/cemetery For those with Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia roots, log on to www.usgenealogyguide.com.
"I requested that the Historical Society of Montgomery County (Pa.) seek information regarding the circumstances surrounding the death of James Davis of Conshohocken," writes Morris Johnson of Bayonet Point. "I had found his name entered on a burial card in the Gulph Christian Cemetery in Gulph Mills, Pa., with Oct. 11, 1918, shown as the date of burial.
"Rose Brown, the librarian, responded immediately with the information she gleaned from two local newspapers. James had died as a result of an epidemic of influenza, along with his sister, Anna (previously unknown to me), and her husband. Ms. Brown also furnished "an interesting article about the State Law on Public Funerals' that she thought would be of interest to me. It is Section 21 of the Act of Assembly of May 28, 1915, forbidding the holding of funerals of any persons dying of prescribed diseases in a public building and restricting the attendance to immediate relatives and pallbearers not under quarantine. The law states that the body of the person dying from the disease may not be taken into any church, chapel, public hall or public building for the holding of funeral services, and that the undertaker and the sexton, janitor or other persons having control of the building will be held responsible for the violation.
"The implications of this statute, and similar state laws, relative to the availability of death and burial records are profound, as I have learned by experience. Genealogical researchers should be aware of disease epidemics in the vicinity and at the time of death of persons whose records they seek."
For more information about this topic, write to Rose Brown, Librarian, the Historical Society of Montgomery County (Pa., 1654 De Kalb St., Norristown, PA 19401. You can learn more about epidemics by visiting these Websites: www.usgenweb.com/researchers/epidemics.html www.rootsweb.com/~indecatu/epidemics.html and www.cdc.gov.
Gwen Tuthill of St. Petersburg wanted suggestions for keeping a handle on the current generations as they go forth and multiply. I suggested using Family Group Sheets, which make it easy to collect and maintain a record of each nuclear family. This information can then be loaded into a software program. Family Group Sheets are generally available for free at most large public libraries. If anyone knows a simpler way to corral this data into a hard copy format, we'd both like to know.
- Read past Donna Murray Allen columns online at www.sptimes.com Type "Donna Murray Allen" in the search box. You can write to Allen c/o Floridian, St. Petersburg Times, P.O. Box 1121, St. Petersburg, FL 33731, or e-mail her at rootscolumn@yahoo.com Her Web site, www.rootsdetective.com includes information on classes and lectures. Allen welcomes your questions about genealogy and will respond to those of general interest in future columns.